Santa Fe or Flagstaff - Flagstaff or Santa Fe?

[rybert]

Originally Posted by Tom Lane

In my experience, open to experience acquaintances from Seattle, Chicago, NYC, and California HATE most of Arizona and New Mexico. Boulder? No problems there, Colorado is #9 nationwide for Open to Expeience, whereas AZ, NM deep into the double digits.

However, seriously, you folks in NM and AZ really need to look inwards to figure out why you are so unfriendly to those of us with the west coast. Why do you not like the fact that we have a sarcastic sense of humor? Why can you not understand that we have a work ethic based on providing customer service first and foremost, rather than following arbitrary rules ahead of helping people in a retail environment (the Consciencious personality type; NM is #1, AZ #9). You drive a lot of West Coasters and New Yorkers out of your states. That's not nice.

In Seattle, we welcome everyone, so any consciousness, serious, humorless person from New Mexico/Arizona is accepted and hired. They're just known as the person who doesn't help customers, but they are great hard working employees who get things done.

*****Richard Florida Ph.D. discussed geography and personality on Coast to Coast AMGeorge Noory (premeire radio networks). Google his name for several web sites.

Florida discussed the research of British researcher *****Peter Jason Rentfrow. You can take the Personality Test at his web site!
PJR Main

Thank God... the fewer coasters the better.

[GreatSantaFe]

Tom Lane sez "you folks in NM and AZ really need to look inwards to figure out why you are so unfriendly to those of us with the west coast."

I sez we don't need to do anything!

I'm wondering if he's pulling our leg. As an obviously intelligent person he certainly could not paint all of New Mexico with such sweeping generalizations. Our state is huge and the disparity among its various community profiles is notable. I doubt anyone would believe the towns of Hobbs and Santa Fe have similar psychological profiles. Also, there is a lot of in-migration of folks from the east and west coasts to communities all over NM. Is Tom suggesting that something happens to these individuals when they cross the state line and that they immediately take a dislike to the friends they just left behind?
I was born in NY and have lived on both coasts (NY, CT, WA, OR) and I love NM and its people. And I'm kind to New Yorkers and Californians - until or unless they try to make NM more like their home state! And like most of us here, we know "coasters" who made the move to Santa Fe and now would not think of living anyplace else

C'mon Tom, cut us some slack.

[CCCVDUR]

Originally Posted by GreatSantaFe

Tom Lane sez "you folks in NM and AZ really need to look inwards to figure out why you are so unfriendly to those of us with the west coast."

I sez we don't need to do anything!

I'm wondering if he's pulling our leg. As an obviously intelligent person he certainly could not paint all of New Mexico with such sweeping generalizations. Our state is huge and the disparity among its various community profiles is notable. I doubt anyone would believe the towns of Hobbs and Santa Fe have similar psychological profiles. Also, there is a lot of in-migration of folks from the east and west coasts to communities all over NM. Is Tom suggesting that something happens to these individuals when they cross the state line and that they immediately take a dislike to the friends they just left behind?
I was born in NY and have lived on both coasts (NY, CT, WA, OR) and I love NM and its people. And I'm kind to New Yorkers and Californians - until or unless they try to make NM more like their home state! And like most of us here, we know "coasters" who made the move to Santa Fe and now would not think of living anyplace else

C'mon Tom, cut us some slack.

My only point is that Northern New Mexico isn't for everyone. Albuquerque and Santa Fe are old and run down and are very cliquish. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes to fit in. Santa Fe is way, way too formal compared to Flagstaff (as one example). When I lived in Albuquerque I took a poll over Craigs List and got 18 emails back from people from the coasts and most were unsatisfied and/or unhappy, many were moving back. Flagstaff, AZ is better, but still has similar issues to NM. I prefer Las Vegas, NM to Albuquerque.

NM is #1 on Peter Wentfrow's test for the Consciencious Personality Type. I think in northern NM, that's due to the increased oxidative stress at high elevations, resulting in oxidized neurotransmitters and deficient CNS norepinephrine levels, combined with the horrible weather in northern new mexico, with howling NE, E, SE winds out of the canyons whenever a dry cold front invades from the Great Plains. We do not have 65mph canyon winds in Flagstaff from dry cold fronts and no need for coyote fences. No dust storms in April either. The weather here in Grand Canyon country is essentially what Las Vegas, NV gets except when it rains there, it snows here.

[Towanda]

Originally Posted by Tom Lane

NM is #1 on Peter Wentfrow's test for the Consciencious Personality Type. I think in northern NM, that's due to the increased oxidative stress at high elevations, resulting in oxidized neurotransmitters and deficient CNS norepinephrine levels...

Holy cow! Now THAT never occured to me to wonder about!!

[Giesela Happe]

I moved to Santa Fe about 20 years ago and love it! I'm from the east (Ohio) originally and have no plans on moving from here. there is something very special about SF, spiritual wise, cultural, art, history lots of book stores, tons of art galleries. people come here to visit and end up moving here. If you have never been here before you should visit first for at least one week or two - in the spring or early summer. speaking of seasons, we have 4 real seasons, it is very dry here so hardly any humidity (no mosquitos or fleas - if you have pets!), we are 7,000 ft high - lots of outdoor activities, hiking, skiing - we have everything but water. not alot of lakes, few streams/rivers. though i am a water person, i just love being here. what i really appreciate is when i visit back east and come home and i just love the openess of NM, you can see for miles and the scenery is beautiful! plus its a good time to buy real estate - even though SF has not been hit as hard as other cities. Cost of living i would guess be more here than in Scottsdale...though i've never lived there when we were deciding where to live - Scottsdale or SF about 20 years ago, we visited both but decided hands down on SF. if you have any specific questions feel free to ask me!